Armed raid on Tunisian bank treated as terrorism-related: official

TUNIS (Reuters) - An armed group robbed a Tunisian bank in the town of Kasserine near the Algerian border on Wednesday in an attack with a “terrorist background”, a Tunisian security official said.

Eleven men, some armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, had hijacked a car and four then stormed the bank and seized an unknown amount of cash, the official said. They later escaped. The security official had no further details.

Tunisia has been on high security alert since 2015 when Islamic State gunmen killed dozens of tourists in a museum in the capital and on a beach in the resort city of Sousse.

Since then security has much improved with only sporadic smaller attacks, allowing the vital tourism industry to recover as foreigners have returned to Tunisia’s Mediterranean beaches.

Authorities say more than 3,000 Tunisians have left to fight for jihadist groups in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Many of them have been killed in battle while others have been jailed or put under house arrest aftere returning to Tunisia.